I ran the example with the patch you sent. It seems like the bold font is
necessary to make the patch work. Why is that the case? Or am I missing
something?


On Wed, Jun 3, 2026 at 6:00 AM Hans Hagen via ntg-context <
[email protected]> wrote:

> On 6/3/2026 12:52 AM, Aryeh Zapinsky wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've noticed that the vowel mark is not centered under letter being used
> > with the \placeinitial command. I'd expect the vowel (the horizontal
> > line) to be centered under the letter (the character that looks like an
> > "n").
> >
> > Additionally, when I tried another approach to do a similar thing and
> > used \starthanging, the letter appears higher and more to the right than
> > I expected. I expected the top of the letter to be positioned roughly as
> > high as the text on the rest of the line, but it appears higher.
> >
> > _Questions:_
> > 1. What is the change that would make the \placeinitial combine the
> > letter and the vowel?
> > 2. Is there something that I should be doing to center the graphic when
> > using \starthanging? Or is there something that needs to be changed here
> > as well?
> > 3. Is there a better way to set up the initial character? (I was
> > thinking I would use metapost to make a graphic eventually.)
> >
> > _Minimal example:_
> > \definefontfeature[minimal][default][
> >      script=hebr
> > ]
> >
> > \starttypescript [serif] [hebrew]
> >    \definefontsynonym [Serif]             [file:/workspaces/
> > context_lmtx/context_2/build_from_cmake_2/context_from_scratch/tex/
> > texmf-fonts/firago/FiraGO-Regular.ttf][features=minimal]
> > \stoptypescript
> >
> > \definetypeface [hebrew]  [rm]  [serif] [hebrew]
> > \definetypeface [hebrew]  [ss]  [serif] [hebrew]
> >
> > \setupbodyfont[hebrew, 20pt]
> > \setupalign[r2l]
> > \setupdirections[bidi=global, method=unicode]
> >
> > \setupinitial[n=2,m=2]
> >
> > \starttext
> >
> > \placeinitial
> > חַי ה' וּבָרוּךְ צוּרִי
> > בַּה' תִּתְהַלֵּל נַפְשִׁי
> > כִּי ה' יָאִיר נֵרִי
> > בְּהִלּוֹ נֵרוֹ עֲלֵי רֹאשִׁי
> > בַּה' תִּתְהַלֵּל נַפְשִׁי
> > כִּי ה' יָאִיר נֵרִי
> > בְּהִלּוֹ נֵרוֹ עֲלֵי רֹאשִׁי
> > חַי ה' וּבָרוּךְ צוּרִי
> > בַּה' תִּתְהַלֵּל נַפְשִׁי
> > כִּי ה' יָאִיר נֵרִי
> > בְּהִלּוֹ נֵרוֹ עֲלֵי רֹאשִׁי
> >
> > \blank
> >
> > \def\hangingCharacter#1{%
> > \setMPtext{hebrew_letter}{#1}
> > \startuseMPgraphic{letter_w}
> >      picture q;
> >      q := outlinetext(\MPstring{hebrew_letter}) scaled 3;
> >      for i within q:
> >          j := j + 1;
> >          draw pathpart i withpen pencircle scaled 2;
> >      endfor;
> > \stopuseMPgraphic
> > \useMPgraphic{letter_w}
> > }
> >
> > \starthanging[left]{\hangingCharacter{חַ}}
> > י ה' וּבָרוּךְ צוּרִי
> > בַּה' תִּתְהַלֵּל נַפְשִׁי
> > כִּי ה' יָאִיר נֵרִי
> > בְּהִלּוֹ נֵרוֹ עֲלֵי רֹאשִׁי
> > \stophanging
> >
> > \stoptext
> >
> > _Context Version:_
> > ConTeXt  ver: 2025.11.24 17:55 LMTX  fmt: 2025.12.31  int:
> english/english__
> >
> > Any help would be appreciated.
>
> I'll send you a file to test. Anyway, bets do this:
>
> \definefontfeature
>   [minimal]
>   [hebrew]
>
> because you get better anchoring. Also, define a bold font:
>
> \starttypescript [serif] [hebrew]
>    \definefontsynonym [Serif]    [FiraGO-Regular.otf][features=minimal]
>    \definefontsynonym [SerifBold][FiraGO-Medium.otf][features=minimal]
> \stoptypescript
>
> Or adapt the font=... accordingly.
>
> \definetypeface [hebrew]  [rm]  [serif] [hebrew]
> \definetypeface [hebrew]  [ss]  [serif] [hebrew]
>
> \setupbodyfont[hebrew, 20pt]
> \setupalign[r2l]
> \setupdirections[bidi=global, method=unicode]
>
> The patch doesn't need the m= setup.
>
> \setupinitial[n=2]
>
> \starttext
>
> \placeinitial ....
>
> \stoptext
>
> Hans
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>                                            Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
>                Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
>         tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
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